Early tailgate lock seal

[Bilson]

I've recently had a bit of work on the van that included sorting out a rusty tailgate lock surround. The van returned fitted with a slightly mashed tailgate lock seal, which took me untill yesterday to understand why. I replaced the seal to find the hole was too small and a slight oval, and it was very hard to actually get the lock in the seal, I managed to do it without damaging the seal, but it doesn't sit flush with the panel.

The hole's obviously out of shape and too small for the seal, just wondering if someone might be able to give me an idea of the best way to go about sorting this out. My first thought was to draw an outline of a circle around the aperture (to the widest diameter), then use a file to widen it where needed.

I thought I best check if this would be a sensible approach first, and if anyone happened to know what the correct diameter should be. I thought of measuring the outer diameter of the new seal, but it may be slightly larger than the hole + it is now a slight oval shape.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Plasticman]

pick and choose who you get to sort out rusty bits, holes dont shrink, what they done or was it like that before,
dont knopw if your in the process of joining but stick your location in your sig as then folk know your rough whereabouts and mat be able to help
mm

[Bilson]

pick and choose who you get to sort out rusty bits,

seems I may have learnt that lesson the hard way. It wasn't like it before I'm certain about that (like a few things here and there)

[Plasticman]

get them to sort it out. sorry not got a stripped out early one to hand
picky would be good, we all like pickies including you.lol
mm

[Bilson]

No worries, I'm not expecting anyone to take theirs apart.

If I'm honest, I'm not too confident about taking it back, it must have been obvious to whoever put the seal + lock back that the hole was too small + not actually round. I'd rather avoid the risk of getting it back to find the hole is too big.

I'll try and work out how to get photos one here.

[kevtherev]

photobucket.. google it

[Bilson]

I tried to take a photo showing how the seal doesn't sit against the panel, but the reflection from the paint + shadow makes it too difficult to make out. This one shows how the seal sits in the hole out of shape because it's under pressure.

Some paint also chipped off from around the hole (straight down to bare metal) when I pushed out the mangled seal, any suggestions for a quick solution to stop rust? At some point I'll have to rub it down properly and paint it, but untill then I could do with something to buy me a bit of time, is Vactan available anywhere open on a Sunday? cheers.

[kevtherev]

That's OK happy to help...

[Bilson]

That's OK happy to help...

To be honest I'd been reading the 84 rusty project thread and had already looked at what had been used to host the images there. Thanks for your suggestion though anyway,